A hybrid read head structure for two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) in a disk drive has two stacked current-perpendicular-to-the plane magnetoresistive (CPP-MR) read heads or sensors substantially aligned with one another in the along-the track direction to enable both sensors to read data from the same data track. The structure is a hybrid structure formed on the disk drive slider with the lower sensor being a dual free layer (DFL) or scissoring type of CPP-MR sensor and the upper sensor being a single free layer (SFL) type of CPP-MR sensor.
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1. A magnetoresistive sensor structure for sensing magnetically recorded data from data tracks on a magnetic recording medium, the structure comprising:
a bottom magnetic shield;
a dual free layer (DFL) magnetoresistive sensor on the bottom magnetic shield and having a front edge for facing a magnetic recording medium, the DFL sensor comprising first and second ferromagnetic free layers, a non-magnetic spacer layer between the first and second free layers, and a rear ferromagnetic biasing layer recessed from the DFL sensor front edge for biasing the first and second free layers' magnetizations to make a non-zero angle relative to one another;
a first middle magnetic shield on the DFL sensor;
a non-magnetic separation layer on the first middle shield;
a second middle magnetic shield on the separation layer;
a single free layer (SFL) magnetoresistive sensor on the second middle magnetic shield and having a front edge for facing a magnetic recording medium, the SFL sensor comprising a ferromagnetic free layer having a magnetization oriented generally parallel to said SFL sensor front edge, a pinned ferromagnetic layer having a magnetization oriented generally orthogonal to said SFL sensor front edge and a non-magnetic spacer layer between the free and pinned layers; and
a top magnetic shield on the SFL sensor; and
wherein the SFL sensor is substantially aligned with the DFL sensor for sensing data from the same data track.
9. A magnetic recording disk drive slider for supporting a read head and a write head to read and write data in tracks of a magnetic recording disk, the slider having a gas-bearing surface (GBS) for facing the disk and a trailing surface substantially orthogonal to the GBS and extending in a generally cross-track direction relative to the tracks of the disk, the slider comprising:
a first magnetic shield layer on the trailing surface of the slider;
a dual free layer (DFL) magnetoresistive read head on the first shield layer and having a front edge aligned in the cross-track direction at the GBS, the DFL read head comprising first and second ferromagnetic free layers, a non-magnetic spacer layer between the first and second free layers, soft magnetic bias structures adjacent the first and second free layers in the cross-track direction, each soft magnetic bias structure comprising two side ferromagnetic biasing layers separated by a non-magnetic antiparallel coupling layer for biasing the magnetizations of the first and second free layers substantially in the cross-track direction, and a rear ferromagnetic biasing layer recessed from the GBS for biasing the magnetizations of the first and second free layers to make a non-zero angle relative to one another;
a first middle magnetic shield on the DFL read head;
a non-magnetic separation layer on the first middle shield;
a second middle magnetic shield on the separation layer;
a single free layer (SFL) magnetoresistive read head on the second middle magnetic shield and having a front edge aligned in the cross-track direction at the GBS, the SFL read head being substantially aligned with the DFL read head in an along-the-track direction orthogonal to the cross-track direction so as to read data from the same track as the DFL read head, the SFL read head comprising a ferromagnetic free layer having a magnetization oriented generally parallel to said SFL sensor front edge, a pinned ferromagnetic layer having a magnetization oriented generally orthogonal to the GBS, a non-magnetic spacer layer between the free and pinned layers, and ferromagnetic biasing layers adjacent the single free layer in the cross-track direction for biasing the magnetization of the single free layer substantially in the cross-track direction; and
a second magnetic shield on the SFL read head.
2. The sensor structure of
3. The sensor structure of
4. The sensor structure of
5. The sensor structure of
6. The sensor structure of
7. The sensor structure of
8. A two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) disk drive comprising:
a rotatable magnetic recording disk having a plurality of circular data tracks;
a slider having a gas-bearing surface (GBS) facing the disk and a trailing surface substantially orthogonal to the GBS and extending in a generally cross-track direction relative to the data tracks;
the sensor structure of
a rotary actuator connected to the slider for moving the slider across the disk and maintaining the DFL sensor and SFL sensor on a data track.
10. The slider of
11. The slider of
12. The slider of
13. The slider of
14. A two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) disk drive comprising:
a rotatable magnetic recording disk having a plurality of circular data tracks;
the slider according to
a rotary actuator connected to the slider for moving the slider across the disk and maintaining the DFL read head and SFL read head on a data track.
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The invention relates generally to two stacked magnetoresistive (MR) sensors to provide a readback signal from the same data track in two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) and a disk drive incorporating the sensors.
One type of conventional magnetoresistive (MR) sensor used as the read head in magnetic recording disk drives is a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) sensor wherein the sense current is directed perpendicularly through the planes of the layers in the sensor stack. A CPP-MR sensor has a stack of layers that includes two ferromagnetic layers separated by a non-magnetic spacer layer. If the spacer layer is electrically conductive, for example copper (Cu) or silver (Ag), the sensor is referred to as a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) CPP sensor. If the spacer layer is an electrically insulating material, such as TiO2, MgO or alumina (Al2O3), the sensor is referred to as a magnetic tunnel junction sensor, also called a tunneling MR or TMR CPP sensor. In a CPP GMR or TMR sensor referred to as a single-free layer (SFL) sensor one ferromagnetic layer adjacent to the spacer layer has its magnetization direction fixed, such as by being pinned by exchange coupling with an adjacent antiferromagnetic layer, and is referred to as the reference or pinned layer. The other ferromagnetic layer adjacent to the spacer layer has its magnetization direction free to rotate in the presence of an external magnetic field and is referred to as the free layer. With a sense current applied to the sensor, the rotation of the free-layer magnetization relative to the pinned-layer magnetization due to the presence of an external magnetic field is detectable as a change in electrical resistance.
Another type of CPP GMR or TMR sensor is a dual-free layer (DFL) or “scissor” sensor that does not have a reference or pinned layer but instead has two free layers separated by a non-magnetic conductive or insulating spacer layer. With a sense current applied to a DFL sensor, the presence of an external magnetic field causes opposite rotation of the magnetizations of the two free layers relative to one another, sometimes referred to as a “scissoring” effect, and is detectable as a change in electrical resistance.
A proposed technology that uses multiple CPP-MR sensors is two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR). In one type of TDMR, two stacked sensors are located on a single structure and are aligned to read the same data track, with or without some slight intentional offset in the cross-track direction. The readback signals from the two sensors may be processed to double the signal for the same relative amount of electronic noise, or reduce sensor noise for the same relative amount of signal, and thus increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Each of the individual CPP-MR sensors in a TDMR read head structure is required to be located between two shields of magnetically permeable material that shield the sensors from recorded data bits that are neighboring the data bit being read. During readback, the shields ensure that each sensor reads only the information from its target bits. TDMR disk drives with two stacked CPP-MR sensors are described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,042,059 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 9,230,578 B2, both assigned to the same assignee as this application.
As a result of fabrication and testing of various stacked two-sensor CPP-MR sensor structures it has been discovered that certain sensors suffer from poor SNR of the readback signal. If both sensors are SFL sensors, the lower SFL sensor generally has lower SNR than the upper SFL sensor, and if both sensors are DFL sensors the lower sensor has higher or similar SNR than the upper DFL sensor. Additionally, the lower DFL sensor of the two-DFL structure exhibited substantially the same SNR as the upper SFL sensor of the two-SFL structure.
Embodiments of the invention relate to a hybrid stacked two-sensor CPP-MR structure for TDMR wherein the lower sensor is a DFL sensor and the upper sensor is a SFL sensor.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken together with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the CPP-MR sensor structure of this invention have application for use in a TDMR disk drive, the operation of which will be briefly described with reference to
An arm electronics or read/write electronics integrated circuit (R/W IC) chip or module 40 is attached to actuator 14. A flex cable 44 provides electrical connections between the R/W IC 40 and the disk drive system electronics 43 on a circuit board 46 mounted to base plate 16. The flex cable 44 is rigidly attached by stationary bracket 45 at one end, which connects to the system electronics 43. The R/W IC module 40 is in turn connected by a plurality of electrical paths that extend through the suspension 20 and connect to the slider 22.
The read head portion of read/write head 24 is depicted as a sensor structure of stacked multiple CPP-MR read heads or sensors 100, 200 for use in a disk drive with TDMR. In this example both read sensors 100, 200 are substantially aligned with one another (vertically in
Lower sensor 100 is located between bottom shield S1, which is located on the slider substrate, i.e., the trailing surface 25 of slider 22 (see
In the presence of an external magnetic field in the range of interest, i.e., magnetic fields from recorded data on the disk, the magnetization 111 of free layer 110 will rotate while the magnetization 121 of pinned layer 120 will remain fixed and not rotate. Thus when a sense current is applied from top shield perpendicularly through the sensor 100 layers, the magnetic fields from the recorded data on the disk will cause rotation of the free-layer magnetization 111 relative to the pinned-layer magnetization 121, which is detectable as a change in electrical resistance.
The structure, function and method of fabrication of CPP-MR sensor 100 are well-known and thus not described in detail in this application. Upper sensor 200 with corresponding 200 series numbered items is substantially identical in structure and function to sensor 100.
Longitudinal bias layers 160, 161 are formed outside of sensor 100, near the side edges of the sensor 100, particularly near the side edges of free layer 110 to longitudinally bias the magnetization 111 of free layer 110. The bias layers 160, 161 have magnetizations 162, 163, respectively, and thus longitudinally bias the magnetization 111 of free layer 110. Seed layers 170, 171 are located below bias layers 160, 161 and insulating layers 180, 181 are located below the seed layers 170, 171. Bias layers 160, 161 are electrically insulated from side edges of sensor 100 by electrically insulating layers 180, 181, which are typically formed of alumina, a silicon nitride (SiNx) or another metal oxide like a Ta oxide or a Ti oxide or MgO. The bias layers 160, 161 may be formed of a hard magnetic material but more typically will be formed of “soft” magnetic material, meaning material that can be easily magnetized and demagnetized at low magnetic fields, so as to function as soft side shields. The side shields may be formed of any of the well-known materials used for conventional magnetic shields. If the bias layers 160, 161 are soft side shields, then an antiferromagnetic material (not shown) may be used adjacent to the soft side shields to stabilize the magnetizations 162, 163 of the soft side shield bias layers 160, 161.
Upper sensor 200 is located between upper middle shield S3b and upper shield S2 and is separated and magnetically isolated from lower sensor 100 by non-magnetic insulating separation layer 250, which may be formed, for example, of alumina or a Ti oxide. Upper sensor 200 includes bias layers 260, 261 with magnetizations 262, 263 and insulating layers 280, 281. The bias layers 260, 261 may have the same structure, composition and function as previously described for side bias layers 160, 161.
As part of the development of embodiments of this invention it has been discovered that, as a result of the required fabrication process, the lower sensor 100 produces substantially lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the readback signal. Because of the need to provide electrical leads connected to the middle shields S3a, S3b, these layers must extend much wider and longer than the sensor structure, which prevents both sensors from being patterned at the same time. Instead, the layers making up lower sensor 100 are deposited as full films and then a full film level annealing is performed to set the magnetization 121 of pinned layer 120. Photoresist deposition and patterning and milling are performed on the full films to define the trackwidth (TW) of the sensor 100, followed by refill to form the bias layers 160, 161 and further milling to define the overall width defined by side edges of the bias layers 160, 161. The middle shields S3a, S3b and separation layer 250 are then on deposited on lower sensor 100 to have a width beyond the edges of the bias layers 160, 161 because electrical connection must be made to provide leads to the sensors. After chemical-mechanical polishing or other planarization step, the layers making up upper sensor 200 are then deposited as full films and then a full film level annealing is performed to set the magnetization 221 of pinned layer 220. However, because the pinned layer 120 has already been patterned to the desired dimension and its magnetization 121 set, this second annealing step can adversely affects the properties of the pinned layer 120 as well as damage the lower sensor 100 at its edges. This can result in a reduction in SNR of the lower sensor 100. TDMR sensor structures with two stacked SFL sensors fabricated as described above were measured for SNR. In one example for a structure with a TW of 31 nm, the lower sensor produced a SNR of the readback signal that was 2 dB lower than the SNR for the upper sensor. In a second example for a structure with a TW of 33 nm, the lower sensor produced a SNR of the readback signal that was 1 dB lower than the SNR for the upper sensor.
As part of the development of embodiments of this invention a stacked CPP-MR sensor structure with two DFL sensors was fabricated.
Lower DFL1 sensor 300 is located between bottom shield S1, which is located on the slider substrate, i.e., the trailing surface 25 of slider 22 (see
The structure, function and method of fabrication of lower DFL1 sensor 300 are well-known and thus not described in detail in this application. A DFL sensor and its method of fabrication are described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,076,468 B1, which is assigned to the same assignee as this application. Upper DFL2 sensor 400 with corresponding 400 series numbered items is substantially identical in structure and function to lower DFL1 sensor 300.
Following the fabrication of the structure shown in
TDMR sensor structures with two stacked DFL sensors fabricated as described above were measured for SNR. The lower DFL sensor exhibited slightly higher SNR than the upper DFL sensor, as expected due to the increased resistance caused by the thinned middle shield electrical lead. However, the lower DFL sensor also exhibited 1 −2 dB greater SNR than the lower layer of the two-SFL structure and substantially the same SNR as the upper SFL sensor of the two-SFL structure.
As a result of the discovery of adverse SNR performance in certain sensors as described above, an embodiment of the invention is a hybrid stacked CPP-MR sensor structure with a lower DFL sensor and an upper SFL sensor. This is shown in
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the disclosed invention is to be considered merely as illustrative and limited in scope only as specified in the appended claims.
Mauri, Daniele, Liu, Xiaoyong, Hu, Chih-Ching, Mao, Ming, Li, Guanxiong, Okada, Yukimasa, Hong, Ying
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